Use of the Internet and the World Wide Web continues to grow at a rapid pace. This growth is due, in part, to an increase in availability of data networks that computing device users may use to access the Internet and the World Wide Web. For instance, in addition to using conventional wired networks, computing device users may access the Internet and the World Wide Web through Wi-Fi hotspots and various types of wireless data networks, among a number of other possible approaches. These data access networks (e.g., for accessing the Internet and the World Wide Web) continue to become more readily available and provide ever increasing data bandwidth capabilities. Additionally, the variety of user computing devices that users may employ to connect with such data access networks continues to increase as well. Such devices may include personal computers, laptops computers and mobile computing devices (such as netbook computers, cellular phones, smartphones and tablet computers), as well as a number of other devices.
The increase in availability of data access networks, the corresponding increase in the capabilities of those networks and the increased variety of user computing devices have, at least in part, allowed for changes in how users interact with their computing device, as well allowing for changes in network-based (web-based) resources that are available to computing device users. One such change is the advent of web-based applications as compared to native applications. Another such change is an increase in the number and variety of resources (websites) that are available. These resources, as some examples provide computing device users with the ability to interact socially, share digital pictures, share videos and store data.
Generally, a web-based application is an application that is run within a Web browser on a computing device. Such web-based applications typically include both a client-side component (on the user device) and a server-side component (e.g., on a website or server corresponding with the web-based application), as compared to native applications that are locally installed on a computing device. Depending on the particular application, the client-side component may include only a brief description of the application, with the functionality of the web-based application being controlled by the server-side component, such as using code that is executable by a web browser, such as HTML, HTML5 and/or JavaScript, among a number of other alternatives (collectively Web-based coding technologies). Furthermore, websites that provide other web-based resources to computing device users, such as those described above, may also be implemented using Web-based coding technologies.
In order to provide security for computing device users' locally stored data when accessing remotely stored content, Web-based coding technologies either explicitly prohibit, or significantly restrict-access to local resources of user computing devices, such as general access to local filesystems. These restrictions reduce the risk of malicious activity, such as a virus being placed on a user's computer, or a malicious actor stealing personal information from a user's computer, as some examples. These security measures, however, also prohibit, or significantly restrict computing device users from providing remotely stored content (e.g., web-based applications and/or other web based content) access to locally stored information without using individual, dedicated interfaces for each web-based application or resource, which may be inconvenient.